Nunavut college offers free online course

Related Stories

For the first time, Nunavut Arctic College is offering a free online university course to residents of the territory.

In co-operation with the University of the Arctic, the college is making the Introduction to the Circumpolar World course available free-of-charge.

Jack Hicks, university studies co-ordinator with Nunavut Arctic College, says the school is offering Introduction to the Circumpolar World for free to see if the tuition cost prevented students from taking it last year. (CBC file)

"If you've ever thought about taking a university course or if you have taken university courses but you'd just like to have a university-look at the Arctic, this is a good opportunity," said Jack Hicks, university studies co-ordinator with Nunavut Arctic College.

Hicks said the college also offered the course last year, but at a cost, and the school now wants to see if that prevented anyone from taking the course.

Introduction to the Circumpolar World is a broad, survey course on the Arctic, its environment, people and issues. It's a first-year university level course and is the pre-requisite for taking further University of the Arctic courses in circumpolar studies.

Students can complete the 13 modules at home but there will also be weekly group sessions in Iqaluit. The course runs from the end of January to the end of April.

The University of the Arctic, created in 2001, is a collaboration of 120 colleges and universities across the globe. Earlier this year, the Government of Canada cut three-quarters of its funding to the University of the Arctic, to about $150,000 from more than $700,000.